Up, because when you're pissed off, instead of letting it go or getting into a fistfight you just shot them, which would only lead to more shooting....

25 years murder-free in 'Gun Town USA' Crime rate plummeted after law required firearms for residents http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55288 This has worked DESPITE the fact that the population has gone from 5,242 all the way to 28,189.

I really think more criminals would think twice about committing a crime if there was a real threat of being shot for it. If I were a criminal, I certainly would hesitate before breaking into someone's home if I KNEW they were armed.

I dont think crime would go up or down. but I do think shootings would go up..

would you feel secure knowing you had a gun or paranoid knowing everyone else out there has one too? would you use it more because ownership is no longer taboo and accidents happen? would you act more rationally towards a situation knowing you have the easy way out in your bag? then what about revenge, someone you know gets shot, you know who did it, will you make them pay, if so will their familly come back revenge again? it's a vicious circle, crime may go in the above situations, humans follow instinct, not everybody has the amount of self control needed to posses a deadly weapon.

True what Jade said. If you are a criminal, and your goin to brake into this guys house, and you know he's got a gun, are you realy goin to risk getting shot just to steal something. Or, what if you wanted to steal somting from a department store, and you knew that the guy had a gun? I dont think you would even think about tryin to steal somting.

Hunter's have guns as well and have a licence to carry them whild hunting season is open,and when it's closed you have permits to keep them locked up and they are also all registered....But if you commit one thing wrong your gun-guns are gone forever...

There are some States which have permitted citizens to carry concealed weapons. When the laws were passed there were many predictions of total disaster. What actually happened was the crime statistics went down. Robert Heinlein, a now-decesaed science fiction writer did an entire book in which the citizens of his fictional world were allowed to carry weapons and even dueling was permitted. If you chose not to carry you had to wear an armband...and the penalties for deliberately fighting an arm-banded person were horrific...as were the penalties for an arm-banded person who carried a concealed weapon. Also in that society, one could not vote unless one had served a minimum of two years in the military...under the quite reasonable theory that anyone who wants to have a say in government must be willing to fight to protect that government. And, all elected offices were held by only ex-military. And, the military was required to take anyone who applied, straight or gay, male or female, etc. After 2 years, or the duration of any existing armed conflict, the individual could get out and run for office...and always vote. But you didn't have to have been in the military to carry a weapon. Street crime was practically non-existant. Too dangerous.

i'll tell you of a problem that happened in my canadian home town, where we are supposed to be this laid back society, what happend is that city town council passed a by law that would free up the mounties and let local city police to start packing service revolvers that went so far as to let security gaurds pack guns. before we knew it there were incidents of guns being pulled when the situation did'nt require police. shots being fired downtown, small town mayberry of the north, all of a sudden crime started going up court dockets were full with misdemeanors, and alont of undertrained peace keepers with hot heads and loaded guns, lucky for us this did not last very long, and what did you know the crime rate dropped as soon as the securiy officers were disarmed. i thought the whole thing was funny, for you get little men with big guns watch out. i lol.

Crime typically goes down in concealed-carry states and rises in areas of strict gun control. Criminals are not stupid... they migrate to ares where people don't have guns.

criminals prey on the weak. they want to get their job done without getting hurt or killed in the process. if everyone carried a gun the risk factor would be too high for many criminals and they might look for more honest work. Initially a few criminals may try to succeed by rapid escalation of violence but that would only work up to the point that their victims responded with gunfire. Being outnumbered, criminals would end up shot or dead. After a few too many of those type of encounters the criminal percentage of the population would decrease through attrition. The more that people realize that coming to the aid of their neighbors will consistantly improve society, the more it will happen. It is 'us against them' and we can't win on our own.

Well, NH has pretty lenient gun laws and there is a lower rate of firearm-related deaths than in Japan where guns are effectively outlawed. Make of that what you will ;)